ABILENE –
Daryl Richardson ran for a career-best 170 yards and two touchdowns Saturday afternoon to help the 19th-ranked Abilene Christian University Wildcats overcome a pesky Texas A&M-Commerce team and take a 40-28 win over the Lions in a Lone Star Conference game at Shotwell Stadium.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the LSC, while the Lions fall to 0-8 and 0-6. ACU – trying to clinch a sixth straight trip the NCAA Division II playoffs – will return to action next Saturday in Kingsville when it takes on Texas A&M-Kingsville at 7 p.m.
Neither team was sharp on Saturday as they combined for 10 turnovers (five for each) in a sloppy game played between the league's second-place team in ACU and its last-place club in Commerce.
Richardson gave the Wildcats some early breathing room as he went 78 yards for a touchdown on his first carry of the game, giving ACU a 7-0 lead just 3:03 into the contest. Two possessions later – on his fifth carry of the contest – Richardson went 46 yards for a score to make it 14-0 at the 7:30 mark of the first quarter.
The Wildcats eventually pushed their lead to 30-0 late int he first half on a field goal, an 46-yard interception return for a score by
Mike Wallace and a 35-yard scoring pass from Mitchell Gale to
Darian Hogg. The Lions were able to get on the board late in the first half on a 20-yard pass from J.J. Harp to Tyler Rawlings to cut the ACU lead to 30-7 at halftime.
Commerce, though, got back into the game in the third quarter as the Lions outscored ACU 14-3 in the frame, cutting the ACU lead to 33-21 on touchdown runs by Darryll Crummie and Marcus Graham.
The Wildcats, though, responded with a 12-play, 79-yard touchdown drive that took up the last two minutes of the third quarter and first 3:42 of the fourth quarter. Gale finished the drive with a 13-yard touchdown pass to
Ben Gibbs in the front left corner of the end zone to push the Wildcats' lead to 40-21.
Commerce answered again with a 10-play, 95-yard scoring drive that culminated in a 2-yard scoring pass from Harp to Jarrett Golightly, cutting the ACU lead to 40-28 with 6:58 left in the game. Commerce recovered the onside kick, but the Lions were forced to turn the ball over on downs and neither team could muster much offense after that possession.
Gale finished the day 19 for 31 for 254 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, while
Justin Andrews had five catches for 52 yards out of the backfield.
Taylor Gabriel had four catches for 45 yards and Richardson had three catches for 47 yards to give him 217 yards of total offense int he game.
Defensively, linebacker
Thor Woerner finished the game with a team-high nine tackles, while senior defensive end
Aston Whiteside finished with seven tackles (three tackles for loss) and 1.5 sacks, leaving him needing just 3.5 sacks to become ACU's all-time sacks leader.
